Wairau Basin and fault connections across Cook Strait, New Zealand: seismic and geological evidence

Abstract

Cook Strait separates North Island and South Island of New Zealand. It contains the Wairau and other sedimentary basins, which have sedimentary thicknesses of up to 4 km. The Strait overlies part of the Australia–Pacific plate boundary where subduction below the North Island changes to strike-slip motion through the South Island. Strike-slip faults are well documented in the South Island and less so in the North Island. Cook Strait has been surveyed by a variety of shallow penetration seismic in the past, and this has resulted in various models and uncertainty about how major faults join across the strait. The shallow-penetration data image numerous fault traces close to the sea bed, most of which can be traced for only a short distance. Gaps between individual fault traces are common. In recent years, a growing body of research, government and oil company seismic data has imaged structures much more deeply and is the subject of this paper. The Wairau Basin structural style is one dominated by normal faulting, with expansion of basin area and progressive eastwards shift in depocentres with time. A steep structural gradient or faulted margin to basement subcrop and outcrop on the North Island margin indicates a significant north-northwest to northwest component of fault control in this area of Neogene development. The seismic interpretation of this deeper data suggests there are continuous seismogenic zones underlying the discontinuous young seafloor fault scarps. Such discontinuities have led to a perception that Cook Strait faults are not connecting through, that fault rupturing across Cook Strait is improbable. Fault connections across Cook Strait along seismogenic zones have recently been interpreted from historical records. These indicate that the October 1848 earthquakes involved mainshock (Mw 7.4–7.7) displacement on the Awatere Fault in the South Island and probable aftershock displacement on the Ohariu and Wellington faults in the North Island. The January–February 1855 earthquakes (mainshock Mw ∼8.2–8.4) occurred on the Wairarapa Fault in southern North Island, Wharekauhau, Nicholson Bank faults in Cook Strait, Vernon and Awatere faults in the South Island, and Needles Fault off the NE Marlborough coast. These interpretations are supported by recent seismic data that indicate underlying basin-defining seismogenic zones connect across Cook Strait, with movements that date back at least to the top Paleogene.